^ On
a 22 September:2002
Parliamentary election in Germany. The Social Democrats of Chancellor Gerhard
Schröder [07 Apr 1944~] [< photo] (in power since
unseating Helmut Kohl [03 Apr 1930~] in 1998) in coalition with the Greens
get a reduced majority, 306 seats of the 603 in the new Bundestag. The opposition
Christian Democrat  Free Democrat potential coalition, led by Edmund
Stoiber (governor of Bavaria since 1993) gets 295 seats. Neo-Communists
get the other two seats. Voters cast two votes: one for a local candidate
and one for a party. In the outgoing 669-seat parliament, Schröder's
Social Democrats hold 298 seats, the Christian Democrats/CSU 245, the Greens
47, the Free Democrats 43 and the ex-Communists 36. 2001
Under pressure from the US in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon (11 September), the United Arab Emirates cuts
diplomatic relations with the Taliban government of Afghanistan. Of the
other two countries which recognize the Taliban, Pakistan withdraws it diplomats
from Kabul (but leaves open the Afghan embassy in Islamabad) and, on 25
September 2001, Saudi Arabia cuts all diplomatic relations.2000
US President Clinton directed the release of 30 million barrels of oil from
the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the government's emergency stockpile.2000 Kraft Foods recalls all taco shells sold nationwide
in supermarkets under the Taco Bell brand after tests confirmed they were
made with StarLink, a genetically engineered corn not approved for human
consumption.1997 IBM announces that it will make
computer chips smaller and 40% faster by using copper instead of aluminum.
IBM's shares go up 5-7/16 to 104-11/16.
1995 Turner sells broadcasting company^top^ Ted
Turner sells his broadcasting company to Time Warner Inc. The deal calls
for Time Warner to hand over $7.5 billion to create one of the world's largest
media concerns, with roughly $20 billion in assets. But US West, which holds
a $2.55 billion ownership stake in Time Warner Enterprises, starts a lawsuit
to halt the deal. To further complicate matters, the Federal Trade Commission
(FTC) begins a lengthy anti-trust investigation. It would take Time and
Turner a full year of negotiating to overcome these obstacles. Finally,
after sifting through over a million pages of documents and holding months
of deliberations, the FTC approved the deal in September of 1996. The various
delays depressed Time Warner's stock so that the value of the deal shrank
to $6.5 billion.
1995 Flaw found in Netscape A member of the Cypherpunk
news group, an online forum where mathematicians and hackers discussed cryptography,
discovered a serious flaw in Netscape's Internet browser. The flaw would
allow intruders to severely damage a user's computer, destroying files or
causing crashes. The flaw was the third in a month identified by Cypherpunk
members.1993 Russian President Boris Yeltsin dissolves
parliament and calls elections after the defiant Duma sought to strip him
of his powers and swore in Alexander Rutskoi as acting president.1991 The London newspaper The Mail publishes an
interview with former intelligence agent John Cairncross, who admits being
the "fifth man" in the Soviet Union's notorious British spy ring.1990 Saudi Arabia expells many Jordanian and Yemeni envoys

^1989 Chrysler sells 50% of its interest in Mitsubishi
Chrysler Corporation sells 50% of its
interest in the Mitsubishi Motors Corporation. The decision came at
a time when most other American automobile manufacturers, including
Chrysler's top rivals Ford and GM, were eagerly buying up shares of
Japanese automobile stock and strengthening ties with Japanese manufacturers.
Chrysler claimed that it was taking advantage of a bullish Japanese
market at a potential gain of $310 million, but industry pundits speculated
that the motive went much deeper. Chrysler's audacious move likely
stemmed from disagreements between the two companies over Mitsubishi's
US sales and distribution. In many cases, Mitsubishi-made products
were being sold under the Chrysler name, often in direct competition
with the Mitsubishi make.

1988 The government of Canada apologizes for the World
War II internment of Japanese-Canadians and promises compensation.

^1980 Iraq starts war with Iran.
Long-standing border disputes and political
turmoil in Iran prompt Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to launch an
invasion of Iran's oil-producing province of Khuzestan. After initial
advances, the Iraqi offense was repulsed. In 1982, Iraq voluntarily
withdrew and sought a peace agreement, but the Ayatollah Khomeini
renewed fighting. Stalemates and the deaths of thousands of young
Iranian conscripts in Iraq followed. Population centers in both countries
were bombed, and Iraq employed chemical weapons. In the Persian Gulf,
a "tanker war" curtailed shipping and increased oil prices. In 1988,
Iran agreed to a cease-fire.

1978 Israeli PM Menachem Begin returns home after Camp
David summit

1975 Second assassination attempt on President
Ford In the second
assassination attempt made against US President Gerald R. Ford in
less than three weeks, the president was shot at in San Francisco,
California, by Sara Jane Moore, an FBI informer. Seventeen days earlier,
Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a follower of incarcerated cult leader Charles
Manson, had had a pistol wrested from her by Secret Service agents
in Sacramento, California.

1973 Henry Kissinger, sworn in as America's 1st Jewish
Secretary of State

^1971 Vietnam: Mass murderer
of Vietnamese acquitted
Captain Ernest Medina is acquitted
of all charges relating to the My Lai massacre of March 1968. His
unit, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry, 11th Infantry
Brigade (Light) of the 23rd (Americal) Division, was charged with
the murder of over 200 Vietnamese civilians, including women and children,
at My Lai 4, a cluster of hamlets that made up Son My village in Son
Tinh District in Quang Ngai Province in the coastal lowlands of I
Corps Tactical Zone.
Medina had been charged with murder,
manslaughter, and assault. All charges were dropped when the military
judge at the Medina’s court martial made an error in instructing the
jury. After the charges were dropped, Medina subsequently resigned
from the service. There were 13 others charged with various crimes
in conjunction with the My Lai massacre, but only one, Lt. William
Calley, was found guilty. Calley was sentenced to life imprisonment
for the murder of 22 civilians, but his sentence was reduced first
to 20 years, then 10 years, and he was ultimately paroled by President
Nixon in November 1974, after having served about one-third of his
sentence..

1970 President Richard M. Nixon signs a bill giving the
District of Columbia representation in the US Congress

^1964 Vietnam: US Presidential
candidate seems to be a warmonger
Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater,
Republican senator from Arizona, charges that President Lyndon Johnson
lied to the American people and that he is committing the United States
to war “recklessly.” Having previously called the war “McNamara’s
War,” he now described it as ”Johnson’s War.” Goldwater said that
the United States should do whatever it took to support US troops
in the war and that if the administration was not prepared to “take
the war to North Vietnam,” it should withdraw.
Although Goldwater discussed the possibility
of using low-yield nuclear weapons to defoliate infiltration routes
in Vietnam, he never actually advocated the use of nuclear weapons
against the North Vietnamese. Nevertheless, the Democrats easily painted
Goldwater as a warmonger who would drop atomic bombs on Hanoi. The
ploy worked extremely well and during the election, incumbent President
Lyndon B. Johnson inflicted a crushing defeat on Goldwater, winning
61 percent of the vote.

^1961 US President Kennedy signs Peace Corps legislation
In an important victory for his Cold
War foreign policy, President John F. Kennedy signs legislation establishing
the Peace Corps as a permanent government agency. Kennedy believed
that the Peace Corps could provide a new and unique weapon in the
war against communism. During
the presidential campaign of 1960, Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy
promised to reinvigorate US foreign policy. He charged that the administration
of President Dwight D. Eisenhower had become stagnant and unimaginative
in dealing with the communist threat, particularly in regards to the
so-called Third World nations. Shortly after his inauguration in January
1961, Kennedy made good on his promise for a new and aggressive foreign
policy. On 01 March 1961, he issued an executive order establishing
the Peace Corps. As described by Kennedy, this new organization would
be an "army" of civilian volunteers  teachers, engineers, agricultural
scientists, etc.  who would be sent to underdeveloped nations
in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and elsewhere to assist the people
of those regions. Kennedy hoped
that by improving the lives of people in less developed countries,
they would become more resistant to the charms of communism and convinced
of America's sincerity and ability to help them. Many in Congress,
however, were not convinced. The program carried a fairly hefty price
tag. Though the participants were volunteers, they would need basic
subsistence and, more important, tools and money to help the people
they were sent to assist. Some members of Congress saw it as an expensive
public relations ploy, foreign aid (which had never been popular with
Congress or the American people) wrapped in a new ribbon. The program,
however, actually turned out to have popular appeal. Stories about
idealistic young Americans braving privation in foreign lands to help
people grow better crops, build schools, or construct wells was good
public relations material for the United States. In September 1961,
Congress passed legislation establishing the Peace Corps on a permanent
basis. A budget of $40 million for the next fiscal year was approved.
In the years after 1961, thousands
of Peace Corps volunteers were sent around the world. Some faced indifference,
some even faced danger. For the most part, however, the Peace Corps
"army" proved to be a valuable, and relatively inexpensive, Cold War
weapon for the United States. Most nations welcomed the idealistic
volunteers, and their labor helped make better lives for hundreds
of thousands of people. Though the Peace Corps is no longer viewed
as a weapon against communism, its goal of improving lives remains
intact  the Peace Corps outlived the Cold War and continues
to send participants to various nations.

1960 Mali (without Senegal) gains independence from France
(National Day) 1958 Sherman Adams, assistant to
US President Eisenhower, resigns amid charges of improperly using his influence
to help an industrialist. 1955 Commercial TV begins
in England 1950 Omar N. Bradley is promoted to the
rank of five-star general (already held by Dwight D. Eisenhower, Douglas
MacArthur, George C. Marshall and Henry H. "Hap" Arnold).
1949 USSR explodes its first nuclear bomb.1947
A Douglas C-54 Skymaster makes the first automatic pilot flight over the
Atlantic.

^1945 Patton: Nazis are just like Democrats or Republicans
General George S. Patton [11 Nov 1885
— 21 Dec 1945], who ought to have outgrown this [photo >],
tells reporters that he does not see the need for "this denazification
thing" and compares the controversy over Nazism to a "Democratic and
Republican election fight." Once again, "Old Blood and Guts" had put
his foot in his mouth. Descended
from a long line of military men, Patton graduated from the West Point
Military Academy in 1909 and served in the Tank Corps during World
War I. As a result of this experience, Patton became a dedicated proponent
of tank warfare. During World War II, as commander of the US 7th Army,
he captured Palermo, Sicily, in 1943 by just such means. Patton's
audacity made itself evident in 1944, when, as commander of the 3rd
Army, he overran much of northern France in an unorthodox—and ruthless—strategy.
Along the way, Patton's mouth proved as dangerous to his career as
the Germans. When he berated and slapped a hospitalized soldier diagnosed
with shell shock, but whom Patton accused of "malingering," the press
turned on him, and pressure was applied to cut him down to size. He
might have found himself enjoying early retirement had not Generals
Dwight Eisenhower and George Marshall intervened on his behalf.
After several months of inactivity,
he was put back to work. And work he did—at the Battle of the Bulge,
during which Patton once again succeeded in employing a complex and
quick-witted strategy, turning the German thrust in Bastogne into
an Allied counterthrust, driving the Germans east across the Rhine.
In March 1945, Patton's army swept through southern Germany into Czechoslovakia—which
he was stopped by the Allies from capturing, out of respect for the
Soviets' postwar political plans for Eastern Europe. Patton had many
gifts, but diplomacy was not one of them.
After the war, while stationed in Germany, he criticized the process
of denazification, or the removal of former Nazi party members from
positions of political, administrative, and governmental power, probably
out of naïveté more than anything else. Nevertheless, his impolitic
press statements questioning the policy resulted in Eisenhower's removing
him as US commander in Bavaria. He was transferred to the 15th Army
Group, but in December 1945 he suffered a broken neck in a car accident
and died less than two weeks later.

1944 Boulogne reoccupied by Allies 1929
Communist and Nazi factions clash in Berlin.1919
President Woodrow Wilson abandons his national tour to support the League
of Nations when he suffers a case of nervous exhaustion.
1919 Steel strike begins in US 1918 General
Allenby leads the British army against the Turks, taking Haifa and Nazareth,
Palestine. 1903 Italo Marchiony granted patent
for the ice cream cone 1893 Bicycle makers Charles
and Frank Duryea show off the first American automobile produced for sale
to the public by taking it on a maiden run through the streets of Springfield,
Massachusetts. 1868 Race riots in New Orleans La
1864 Battle of Fisher's Hill, in Virginia: Union
General Philip Sheridan defeats Confederate General Jubal Early's troops.1863 Union troops abandon Missionary Ridge and retreat
into Chattanooga, Tennessee 1862 President Lincoln
issues a proclamation calling for all slaves within the rebel states to
be freed on January 1, a political move that helps keep the British from
intervening on the side of the South.

^1862 Lincoln issues preliminary emancipation proclamation
In the aftermath of the costly Battle
of Antietam, US President Abraham Lincoln issues a preliminary
emancipation proclamation, threatening to free all slaves in the
rebelling states if those states did not return to the Union by the
beginning of the following year.
The Emancipation Proclamation, issued as threatened on 01 January
1963, transformed the Civil War from a war against Southern secession
to a war against slavery. This proclamation called on the Union army
to liberate all slaves in states still in rebellion as "an act of
justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity."
Border slave states that remained in the Union at the start of the
Civil War were exempted, as were all of the three Confederate states
controlled by the Union army.
When the war began, Lincoln, who privately detested slavery, was politically
unable to call for the abolishment of slavery: Constitutional amendments
protected the right of states to choose whether they would be slave
or free and Northern Democrats and Union slave states would have fervently
opposed such a radical act. As a Republican politician, Lincoln had
fought to isolate slavery from the new territories, and as president
he initiated the Civil War as a war against Southern secession, not
against slavery. However, in
1862, the US government began to realize the military advantages of
emancipation: the liberation of slaves in rebel states would weaken
the Confederacy by depriving it of a major portion of its labor force,
and this would in turn strengthen the Union by producing an influx
of manpower. In July of 1862, Congress passed a law permitting Lincoln
to employ freed slaves in the army in any capacity he saw fit, and
in September, following the bloody Union victory at Antietam,
Lincoln
gives a formal warning of his intent to issue an Emancipation Proclamation
on New Year's Day. The Emancipation
Proclamation transformed the Civil War into a war for "a new birth
of freedom," as Lincoln stated in the Gettysburg Address in November
of 1863. This ideological change thwarted the intervention of France
or England on the Confederacy's behalf, and enabled the Union to enlist
the tens of thousands of Blacks who volunteered as soldiers between
01 January 1863, and the conclusion of the war. Motivated
by his growing concern for the inhumanity of slavery as well as practical
political concerns, President Abraham Lincoln changes the course of
the war and American history by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation.
Announced a week after the nominal Union victory at the Battle of
Antietam (Sharpsburg), this measure did not technically free any slaves,
but it redefined the Union's war aim from reunification to the abolition
of slavery. The proclamation
announced that all slaves in territory that was still in rebellion
as of 01 January 1863, would be free. Lincoln used vacated congressional
seats to determine the areas still in rebellion, as some parts of
the South had already been recaptured and representatives returned
to Congress under Union supervision. Since it freed slaves only in
Rebel areas that were beyond Union occupation, the Emancipation Proclamation
really freed no one. But the measure was still one of the most important
acts in American history, as it meant slavery would end when those
areas were recaptured. In addition, the proclamation effectively sabotaged
Confederate attempts to secure recognition by foreign governments,
especially Great Britain. When reunification was the goal of the North,
foreigners could view the Confederates as freedom fighters being held
against their will by the Union. But after the Emancipation Proclamation,
the Southern cause was now viewed as the defense of slavery. The proclamation
was a shrewd maneuver by Lincoln to brand the Confederate States as
a slave nation and render foreign aid impossible. The measure was
met by a good deal of opposition, because many Northerners were unwilling
to fight for the freedom of Blacks. But it spelled the death knell
for slavery, and it had the effect on British opinion that Lincoln
had desired. Antislavery Britain could no longer recognize the Confederacy,
and Union sentiment swelled in Britain. With this measure, Lincoln
effectively isolated the Confederacy and killed the institution that
was at the root of sectional differences.  Emancipation
Proclamation (preliminary version). First printed edition. Washington,
22 September 1862

1827 The angel Moroni reportedly revealed the golden
tablets (containing the "Book
of Mormon") to Joseph Smith. They were hidden near the family farm,
in Palmyra, NY. Smith's English translation of their strange hieroglyphics
became the literary foundation for the new Mormon religion.
1817 John Quincy Adams becomes secretary of State
1792 (1 vendémiaire an I) Origin of French Republican Era,
being the Fall Equinox (calendar not established until later).1789
A Russian-Austrian army of 25'000 under Count Aleksandr Suvorov drive the
Turkish army under Yusuf Pasha from the Rymnik River, upsetting the Turkish
invasion of Russia. 1789 Office of Postmaster General
of the US established by Congress 1784 Russian
trappers established a colony on Kodiak Island, AK 1656
The General Provincial Court in session at Patuxent, Maryland,
impanels the first all-woman jury in the Colonies to hear evidence against
Judith Catchpole, who is accused of murdering her child. The jury acquits
her after hearing her defense of never having been pregnant.1601
The first (Catholic) priests of the newly established Christian
Church in Japan  Sebastian Chimura and Aloysius Niabara  are
ordained in their hometown of Nagasaki.

^1598 Playwright Jonson indicted for manslaughter in
a duel Playwright
Ben Jonson, 26, is indicted for manslaughter after a duel. Jonson's
father, a clergyman, died before Jonson was born on 11 June 1572,
and he was raised by his mother and stepfather, a master bricklayer
at Westminster. Jonson attended Westminster school, where he was educated
by great classical scholars. He tried his hand at bricklaying, then
joined the army and traveled to Flanders, where he killed a man in
single combat. Back in England
by 1594, he became an actor and playwright. In the fall of 1598, he
killed another actor in a duel and was arrested. He was very nearly
hanged, but his ability to read and write saved him. He claimed "benefit
of clergy," which allowed him to be sentenced by the lenient ecclesiastical
courts. Jonson was also jailed twice for his writing and viewed with
some suspicion for his conversion to Catholicism.
However, he became a successful playwright with his comedy Every Man in his Humour, which was performed in 1598
by the Lord Chamberlain's Men, featuring William Shakespeare in a
leading role. After several less successful plays, he again scored
a hit with Volpone,
or, The Foxe: A Comoedie Acted in the Yeere 1605, a comedy
about a wealthy Venetian who falsely informs several greedy relations
and associates that each is sole heir.
In 1605, Jonson wrote the first of his many masques, a popular form
of court entertainment involving elaborate and elegant spectacle.
He won favor at court and in 1616 was given a royal pension, becoming
England's first unofficial poet laureate. Jonson was friends with
William Shakespeare, John Donne, Francis Bacon, tutor to the son of
Sir Walter Raleigh [1554 – 29 Oct 1618], and acquainted with
most of the important court figures of 17th-century England. His poetry
was much admired by younger writers, including Robert Herrick and
Thomas Carew, who called themselves "sons of Ben." Known for his clever
remarks and witty verbal battles at pubs like the Mermaid Tavern,
Jonson was as famous in his time as Shakespeare. He died on 6 August
1637.
JONSON ONLINE:

^0530 Boniface
II and Dioscorus
are separately consecrated rival Popes. Of
Germanic ancestry, Boniface served the Roman Church from early youth.
During the reign of Pope Felix IV, he was archdeacon and a personage
of considerable influence with the ecclesiastical and civil authorities.
His elevation to the papacy is remarkable as offering an unquestionable
example of the nomination of a Pope by his predecessor, without even
the formality of an election. Felix IV apprehending death and fearing
a contest for the papacy between Roman and Gothic factions, gathered
about him several of his clergy and a number of Roman Senators and
patricians who happened to be near. In their presence, he solemnly
conferred on his aged archdeacon the pallium of papal sovereignty,
proclaiming him his successor and menacing with excommunication those
refusing to recognize and obey Boniface as validly chosen pope.
On Felix's death Boniface assumed succession,
but nearly all of the Roman priests. 60 out of 67, refused to accept
him and elected Dioscorus. They feared the undue influence in papal
affairs of the Ostrogothic King Athalaric, whose grandfather, Theodoric
I, had helped to elect Pope Felix IV, a circumstance rendering more
odious the latter's nomination of Boniface. Dioscorus, a Greek from
Alexandria, during the pontificate of Felix IV had became the recognized
head of the Byzantine party — a party in Rome which opposed the growing
influence and power of a rival faction, the Gothic, to which the pope
inclined. Both popes are consecrated
22 September 530, Boniface in the Basilica of Julius, and Dioscorus
in the Lateran. The Roman Church is thus involved in the seventh anti-papal
schism. Fortunately would last only twenty-two days, for Dioscorus
died 14 October, leaving Boniface in possession. Boniface
soon convened a Roman synod and presented a decree anathematizing
his late rival to which he secured the signatures of the priests who
had been Dioscorus's partisans (December 530) Each of these expressed
regret for his participation in the irregular election and pledged
future obedience. Boniface reconciled
many by his mild, conciliatory administration; but some resentment
remained, for he seems not to have been tendered a formal election
by those who, despite their submission, had impugned the validly of
his nomination; and five years later a pope of their choice, St.
Agapetus I, solemnly burned the anathema against Dioscorus..
In a second synod, held (531) in St.
Peter's, Boniface presented a constitution attributing to himself
the right to appoint his successor. The Roman Clergy subscribed to
it and promised obedience. Boniface proposed as his choice the deacon
Vigilius and it was ratified by priests and. people. This enactment
provoked bitter resentment and even imperial disfavor, for in third
synod (531) it was rescinded. Boniface burned the constitution before
the clergy and senate and nullified the appointment of Vigilius.
Boniface II died in October 532 and
was buried on 17 October..He was succeeded by John
II.on 02 January 533.

2006
Twenty three persons on the Transrapid
08 experimental magnetic-levitation
train which crashes into the maintenance vehicle used for the daily cleaning
of the test track at Emsland, near Lathen, Germany, at 09:30 (07:30 UT).
10 persons are injured. —(060923)2006 Fabianus Tibo, 60, Marianus
Riwu, 48, and Dominggus da Silva, 42, Catholics executed by shooting,
in Palu, Central Sulawesi province, Indonesia, in the early hours (still
21 Sep UT). They were sentenced to death in 2001, after a flawed trial that
falsely found them guilty of leading a mob in an attack on 22 May 2000 that
killed more than 70 Muslims who had taken refuge in an Islamic boarding
school in Moengko Baru, Poso district, during Muslim-Christian clashes in
the province. There was no evidence that they killed anyone; there is evidence
that they were trying to rescue Muslims and succeeded in some cases. The
execution provokes riots. —(060922)2005 Holli A. Strickland,
33, and her grandmother, Constance F. Young, 71, in gunshot
double suicide or homicide-suicide in the same bed at Young’s West Springfield,
Massachusetts, apartment. Strickland’s adopted daughter, Haleigh Poutre,
11, hospitalized with an 11 September 2005 brain stem injury, is brain dead.
Charges against Strickland, accused by police of severely beating Haleigh,
were dropped the previous day in Westfield District Court, after Strickland,
and her husband Jason D. Strickland, 31, both of 36 Bowdoin Street, pleaded
innocent to child abuse charges. Holli Strickland was released on $25'000
bail. — (051207)2004 Suicide bomber Zayneb Abu Salem,
19, and policemen Yonatan “Mamoya” Tahio, 20, and Menashe “Meni”
Komemi, 19, who stopped her to check her bag, at 15:50 (12:50
UT), at their post guarding a fenced-in hitchhiking station at the French
Hills junction in Jerusalem, Israel. 30 persons are injured. Abu Salem,
of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, was from the Askar refugee camp near Nablus,
West Bank, where early the next day the Israeli Army bulldozes her family's
home.2003 Hugo Young, of cancer, British center-left,
pro-Europe, anti-Iraq-war political columnist, chairman of the Scott Trust,
which owns The Guardian and The Observer. His final column,
published on 16 September 2003, was headlined, "Under Blair, Britain has
ceased to be a sovereign state," and concludes, "At last we see the consequences
of our country's abject thrall to the U.S." Author of One of Us
(1989, political biography of Margaret Thatcher), This Blessed Plot:
Britain and Europe From Churchill to Blair (1998).

^
2002 Joseph Nathan Kane,
writer of books of facts. Kane
[1999 photo >], born on 23 January 1899, wrote reference
works that cataloged such things as the nicknames of presidents, when
the first Eskimo Pie was created (1922), when the first camels were
brought to America (1721) and the 1849 patent number of the first
safety pin in the United States (6281). Among his books were Famous
First Facts: A Record of First Happenings, Discoveries and Inventions
in the United States (1933); More First Facts (1935);
1000 Facts Worth Knowing (1938); What Dog Is That?
(1944), a summary of the characteristics of 122 purebreds recognized
by the American Kennel Club. He also wrote an official history of
the King Solomon Lodge No. 279 of the Free and Accepted Masons, of
which he was a member. He was
not the first US factualist (Henry W. Ruoff edited a Standard
Dictionary of Facts in 1914). Kane specialized in Americana.
In Kane's work one learns that James Madison was the shortest US president,
at 5 feet 4 inches, and that Madison's last words were, "I always
talk better lying down." Mr. Kane was not just a trivialist — he was
a factualist with a conscience who cared passionately about giving
credit where credit was due.
He mentioned the New Yorker Walter Hunt, who is believed to have devised
the first US stitch-lock sewing machine in 1832, but failed to patent
it, so that credit went to Elias Howe, A. B. Wilson and Isaac Singer,
who came later. Kane determined
that the first US commercially built automobiles were not the work
of Henry Ford or Walter Chrysler or David Buick, but of Charles Edgar
Duryea, who opened the Duryea Motor Wagon Company in Springfield,
Massachusetts, in 1895. From
Kane one learned that Grover Cleveland had 20 nicknames, more than
any other president. They included Dumb Prophet, Buffalo Hangman,
Grover the Good, Old Veto and Perpetual Candidate.
Kane insisted that the US Declaration of Independence was not signed
on 04 July 1776. He said that it was fairly engrossed on parchment
on 19 July and not signed by 50 of those who agreed to it until 02
August 1776. Six others did not sign it until even later. Kane
even determined that George Washington was not really the first president
of the United States. Washington did not get the job until the Constitution
was ratified. But Thomas McKean was named president of the United
States back in 1781 by the Congress that convened under the Articles
of Confederation — eight years before Washington took office.
Kane's last book was Necessity's
Child: The Story of Walter Hunt, America's Forgotten Inventor
(1997) about the inventor of the sewing machine, the fountain pen,
and the safety pin. After the
WW I, Kane was hired by a New York confectioner, D. Auerbach & Sons,
because he could speak and read French, German and Spanish. He eventually
ran the export division, and began writing articles about the export
business for trade journals. His material was syndicated for many
years, and he also wrote for publications including Advertising
Age, Printers' Ink and Nation's Business. He also wrote
articles for newspapers. In the
late 1920's he decided to write his first book about achievers forgotten
by history. It was rejected by 11 publishers, but the 12th, H. W.
Wilson, accepted it, and thus in Famous First Facts the world
learned that the first sheep were imported into the United States
in 1609, that the first Black US Army major was Martin Robinson Delaney,
and that the first subway built in the US (in 1870) was the Beach
Pneumatic Underground Railway in New York. In a brief unsigned review
of that book in 1933, The Times said the author showed "a dogged resolution
of almost superhuman force."
Kane listed people who had been named after George Washington. Besides
George Washington Carver, the agricultural chemist, there was a George
Washington Julian, who ran for vice president on the Free Soil Party
ticket; as well as George Washington Dixon, who became a minstrel;
George Washington Morgan, a colonel in the Mexican War; and George
Washington Crile, a doctor in the Spanish-American War.
His research on the origins of the names of all the counties in the
United States was published in 1955 as The American Counties:
A Record of the Origin of the Names of 3,067 Counties, Dates of Creation
and Organization, Area, Population, Historical Data, etc.
My own research has failed to
determine whether anyone ever called Kane, who never married, by the
pet name “Sugar”.

1989 Ten British Royal Marines, at their School of Music
in Deal, UK, by IRA bomb. More than 30 are wounded. 1989 Irving
Berlin, 101, songwriter, in New York City.1979 Charles
Ehresmann, Alsatian mathematician born on 19 April 1905.1970 Vojtech
Jarnik, Czech mathematician born on 22 December 1897. He worked
mainly on number theory.1923 Marquess of Ripon,
game hunter, dies after shooting 52nd grouse 1920 Herbert
James Draper, born in 1864, British painter of historical and imaginative
subjects and portraits of his contemporaries.  MORE
ON DRAPER AT ART 4 SEPTEMBER with links to images. 1914 Five civilians
as the German cruiser Emden shells Madras, India, destroying 1'200'000 liters
of fuel.

^
1914: Some 1400 British sailors as U-Boat sinks 3 cruisers.
In the North Sea, one German submarine,
the U-9, sinks three British cruisers, the Aboukir, the Hogue,
and the Cressy, in just over one hour. The one-sided battle,
during which 1400 British sailors lost their lives, alerted the British
to the deadly effectiveness of the submarine, which had been generally
unrecognized up to that time. The
German U-boat was a submarine far more sophisticated than those built
by other nations at the time. The typical U-boat was 214 feet long,
carried 35 men and 12 torpedoes, and could travel underwater for two
hours at a time. In the first few years of World War I, the U-boats
took a terrible toll on Allied shipping. Germany's quarantine of the
British Isles was almost successful, but in 1917 unrestricted U-boat
attacks on neutral American vessels traveling to Britain prompted
the US entrance into the war. The infusion of American ships, troops,
and arms into World War I turned the tide of the war against Germany.

1913: 263 people killed in coal mine explosion at Dawson
New Mexico

^1906 Perhaps 16 blacks and 1 white killed on first
day of Atlanta
race riot Though
Atlanta's rapid expansion around 1900 was marked by the growth of
both white and black communities, these communities remained separate
entities. Communities throughout the South enacted Jim Crow laws to
segregate blacks and to subordinate them in almost every respect.
Tensions between the races heightened during the gubernatorial race
of 1906. The two leading candidates, Hoke Smith and Clark Howell,
used the Atlanta newspapers they controlled to wage a bitter campaign
based on racial hatred. The situation reached a climax on 22 September,
when mobs of white Atlantans, enflamed by newspaper reports of black
indignities to white women, went through the downtown area attacking
and killing blacks on the streets, trolley cars and even in stores.
After a two-day rampage, 25 blacks and one white were officially reported
as dead, although unofficial counts show that deaths on both sides
were significantly higher.  The
news reported at the time in the Atlanta Constitution and
the New York Times.

1870 Louis Rémy Mignot, US Hudson River School painter,
specialized in landscapes, born in 1831. — links
to images.1890 Auguste Etienne François Mayer, French
artist born on 03 July 1805.1837 William
George Horner, English one-shot mathematician born in 1786.1832 Philibert-Louis Debucourt, French painter and printmaker
born on 13 February 1755. — links
to images.

^1828 Shaka the great Zulu king, murdered.
He is murdered by his half-brothers
Dingane and Mhlangana, and an induna (military officer),
Mbopa, when his customary cruelty (which make Attila and Ghengis Khan
look like humanitarians in comparison) reached absolute insanity after
his mother's death (for a whole year he prohibited agriculture, milk,
and had all pregnant women, and even cows, massacred; but the last
straw was when he tried to send his impis  regiments
 on an exhausting expedition without rest from the previous
one). Shaka,founder of the Zulu
Kingdom, had been a highly successful military ruler, who completed
the centralization of Zulu power, developed the weapons and tactics
of southern African warfare, and set about the integration of neighboring
peoples into the growing Zulu Kingdom.
Shaka, founder of the Zulu Kingdom of southern Africa, is murdered
by his two half-brothers, Dingane and Mhlangana, after Shaka's mental
illness threatened to destroy the Zulu tribe. When Shaka became chief
of the Zulus in 1816, the tribe numbered fewer than 1500 and was among
the smaller of the hundreds of other tribes in southern Africa. However,
Shaka proved a brilliant military organizer, forming well-commanded
regiments and arming his warriors with assegais, a new type of long-bladed,
short spear that was easy to wield and deadly. The Zulus rapidly conquered
neighboring tribes, incorporating the survivors into their ranks.
By 1823, Shaka was in control of all of present-day Natal. The Zulu
conquests greatly destabilized the region and resulted in a great
wave of migrations by uprooted tribes.
In 1827, Shaka's mother, Nandi, died, and the Zulu leader lost his
mind. In his grief, Shaka had hundreds of Zulus killed, and he outlawed
the planting of crops and the use of milk for a year. All women found
pregnant were murdered along with their husbands. He sent his army
on an extensive military operation, and when they returned exhausted
he immediately ordered them out again. It was the last straw for the
lesser Zulu chiefs: On 22 September 1828, his half-brothers murdered
Shaka. Dingane, one of the brothers, then became king of the Zulus.

Hale was born
in Connecticut on 06 June 1755. He joined the Patriot army on 06 July 1755
and rapidly rose to captain. He volunteered for the mission requested by
General George Washington to cross behind British lines on Long Island and
report on their activity.
Disguised as a Dutch schoolmaster, Nathan Hale set out on his mission on
12 September 1776. For over a week he gathered information on the position
of British troops but was captured os 21 September while returning, near
the American lines. Before being hanged he is reported to have said: "I
only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."

1711 North Carolina settlers massacred as the Tuscarora
Indian War begins, following white encroachment that included the enslaving
of Indian children.1703 Vincenzo
Viviani, Florentine engineer and mathematician born on 05 April
1622.1692 During the famous Salem Witch Trials,
the last 8 "witches" are hanged in Massachusetts. When the turmoil finally
settled, 13 women and 7 men had been executed, and over 150 others remained
in jail through the next summer. Last hanging for witchcraft in US 1660 Pieter de Ring, Dutch still-life painter born in 1615.
— links to images.1658 Georg Philipp Harsdörfer, 50, poet (Poetischer
Trichter)1607 Alessandro Bronzino Allori,
Italian Mannerist
painter born on 03 May 1535. — links
to images.1572 François Clouet, French Mannerist
portraitist born before 1522 (perhaps in 1510).  MORE
ON CLOUET AT ART 4 SEPTEMBER with links to images.1566 Johann Agricola,
German theologian and reformer. A friend of Martin Luther, the relationship
deteriorated over the issue of the authority of Mosaic Law in believers'
and nonbelievers' lives.

^
1554 Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, 44, Spanish explorer.
His health had badly deteriorated from
injuries and the toll of his strenuous travels.
He never found the fabled cities of gold that he had sought for decades.
A quarter-century earlier Coronado
had explored much of the southwestern United States, leading his force
of 300 Spaniards and 800 Indians northward from Mexico in search of
the Seven Cities of Cíbola that were rumored to have walls made of
gold and treasure houses filled with priceless gems. Arriving in the
region that today straddles the border between New Mexico and Arizona,
Coronado did actually find Cíbola. But after winning a brief battle
against the native defenders, Coronado discovered he had conquered
only a modest Zuni village built with walls of adobe mud, not gold.
Discouraged, Coronado considered abandoning
his search. But while exploring the Rio Grande one of his lieutenants
had acquired a slave, a man the Spaniards called "the Turk," who boasted
that in his homeland of Quivara, far to the northeast, Coronado could
find all the treasures after which he lusted. Coronado set off in
search of Quivara in the spring of 1541, eventually traveling across
the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles and up into Kansas. But when he
finally made contact with the Quivara Indians, Coronado was once again
disappointed to find that they were living in simple huts and had
no more gold and silver than the Zunis. After strangling the Turk
for having lied to him, Coronado gave up and returned to Mexico where
he faced a government furious that he had not brought back the wealth
he had promised. Coronado never
again mounted another exploratory mission and died believing that
he had been a shameful failure. But while he never found the golden
cities he sought, Coronado did succeed in giving the Spanish and the
rest of the world their first fairly accurate understanding of the
inhabitants and geography of the southern half of the present United
States.Coronado's
Report to Viceroy Mendoza Sent from Cibola, 03 August 1540Coronado's
Report to the King of Spain Sent from Tiguex on 20 October 1541

^1997 The Deskpro NetPC
Compaq announced it had shipped the Deskpro NetPC, the first computer
in a class of stripped-down Internet machines jointly proposed by
Compaq, Intel, and Microsoft. NetPCs were designed as a low-cost alternative
for corporations whose workers did not need a full-fledged PC. The
bare-bones machines ran programs and stored files on a network instead
of a hard drive. The Deskpro cost about $1149. Earlier in the month,
IBM had said it would not sell NetPCs, even though they had demonstrated
a prototype recently.

1964 Fiddler on the Roof opens on Broadway, beginning
a run of 3242 performances1961 The Peace Corps.
President John F. Kennedy signs a congressional act establishing the Peace
Corps, a government-funded volunteer organization created to fight hunger,
disease, illiteracy, poverty, and lack of opportunity around the world 1953 The world's first four-level freeway interchange,
connecting the freeways of Hollywood, Harbor, Santa Ana, and Arroyo Seco.1933 Fay Weldon, author (The Life and Loves of a She-Devil). 1922 Chen Ning Yang China, physicist/disproved parity
(Nobel 1957) 1909 David Reisman, sociologist, author
of The Lonely Crowd.1908 Esphyr Slobodkina~Urquhart,
Siberian-born US abstract artist better known for her illustrated children's
books, especially Caps for Sale, (1938). She died on 21 July 2002.
 MORE
ON SLOBODKINA AT ART 4 SEPTEMBER
with links to images.1905 Fritz Winter, German artist
who died in 1975. — link
to an image.1901 Charles Huggins, Canadian-born
US Nobel Prize-winning surgeon and urologist (1966). He died on 12 January
1997. 1895 Babette Deutsch, US poet, critic, translator
and novelist, who died on 13 November 1982.

^
1893 The Duryea horseless carriage. It
is the US's first automobile, built by Charles and Frank Duryea, two
bicycle makers. Charles spotted a gasoline engine at the 1886 Ohio
State Fair and became convinced that an engine-driven carriage could
be built. The two brothers designed and built the car together, working
in a rented loft in Springfield, Massachusetts. After two years of
tinkering, Charles and Frank Duryea showed off their home invention
on the streets of Springfield, the first successful run of an automobile
in the US

1892 Frank Sullivan humorist (New Yorker Magazine) 1886 (1888?) Roger Bissière, French artist who died
on 02 December 1964. — more
with links to images.1880 Dame Christabel Pankhurst,
English women's suffragist who died on 13 February 1958.
1878 Shigeru Yoshida Japanese PM (most of 1946-54) 1866
Helmer Osslund, Swedish artist who died in 1938. 1859
Paul Baum, German Pointillist painter who died in 1932. [He almost
always included trees in his paintings. — link
to an image.1838 Karl Jutz, German artist who died
in 1916.

^1791 Michael Faraday,
English physicist and chemist, inventor of the dynamo, the transformer,
and the electric motor. He died on 25 August 1867.
Faraday's Law of Induction states that the magnitude of the electromotive
force induced in a circuit is proportional to the rate of change of
the magnetic flux that cuts across the circuit. Faraday's Laws of
Electrolysis: (1) the chemical change produced by current at an elecrode-electrolyte
boundary is proportional to the quantity of electricity. (2) the amount
of a chemical produced by 1 faraday of electricity in any substance
is its gram formula weight. The faraday is the unit of electricity
(= 96'085.309 coulombs = 6.0221367 x 10^23 electrons) hdah liberates
1 gram formula weight of any ion from an electrolytic solution. The
farad is the capacitance of a capacitor in which 1 coulomb of electricity
changes the potential between the plates by 1 volt (the microfarad
and picofarad are more practically sized. N.B. pico means 1 trillionth
= 10^12)  Author of Chemical Manipulation (1827),
Experimental Researches in Electricity (1855), Experimental
Researches in Chemistry and Physics (1859), A Course of Six
Lectures on the Chemical History of a Candle (1861), On the
Various Forces of Nature (1873).

1788 Theodore Hook, English novelist best known for Impromptu
at Fulham.1769 Louis
Puissant, French mathematical geographer who died on 10 January
1843. He invented a new map projection and he wrote on geodesy, the shape
of the Earth, and spherical trigonometry. 1765 Paolo
Ruffini, Italian mathematician and philosopher who died on
10 May 1822.1738 Johann Ludwig Ernst Morgenstern,
German artist who died on 13 November 1819. — more
with links to images.1725
Joseph-Siffrède Duplessis, French artist who died on 01
April 1802.  MORE
ON DUPLESSIS AT ART 4 SEPTEMBER LINKS with links to images.1694 Philip Dormer Stanhope,
4th earl of Chesterfield, British statesman, diplomat, and wit,
who died on 24 March 1773. He is chiefly remembered as the author of Letters
to His Son and Letters to His Godson (guides to manners, the
art of pleasing, and the art of worldly success). He introduced the Gregorian
calendar to England and its colonies (1752).

1515 Anne
of Cleves, in Cleves, Germany, fourth of the six
wives of Henry
the VIII [28 Jun 1491 – 28 Jan 1547], who married her on 06 January
1533 and had the marriage annulled on 09 July 1540 (she kept her head, and
got paid off, because she did not fight the annulment), because he had not
derived from it the foreign relations advantages he expected, and because
she was not as pretty as the 1539 portrait [click image for full portrait >]
by Hans
Holbein the Younger [1498-1543] from which he had decided to marry her.
Anne of Cleves died on 16 July 1557. — Henry VIII separated in July
1531 from Catherine
of Aragon [16 Dec 1485 – 07 Jan 1536] whom he had married in 1509.
Anne Boleyn
[1507 – 19 May 1536], whom he had married in January 1533, he got
beheaded, officially for alleged adultery, but really because, like Catherine,
she had not given live birth to the male heir he wanted. Meanwhile Henry
VIII was engaging in plenty of real adultery of his own, including with
Jane Seymour
[1509 – 24 Oct 1537], whom he finally married on 30 May 1536, and
who died of natural causes (or as a consequence of caesarean surgery) after
giving birth to Edward VI [12 Oct 1537 – 06 Jul 1553]. Henry VIII
married on 28 July 1540 Kathryn
Howard [1521 – 13 Feb 1542], she was beheaded for flirting (and
alledgedly more) with young men. Heny VIII died before he could kill, or
at least divorce Katherine
Parr [1512 – 05 Sep 1548], who was twice widowed before he married
her on 12 July 1543.

Thoughts for the day:
"Make a wish, it might come true."
"Make a wish, it might come true, so be careful what you wish."
"Make a wish, it might come true, especially if you do something about it."
"Make a wish, it might come true, then again it might not."
"Make a wish, it might come true. perhaps in a different way.
Might might make a mite of a wish come true.
Better than a thousand useless wishes is one useful wish, which becomes
reality by your efforts.
Better than a thousand useless sayings is one useful saying, reading which
one attains peace.  {is this it?}